April: Our recommendations on the menu this month

What we’ve been eating: Buckinghamshire roe deer with crapaudine beetroot and fennel 

We have some beautiful, locally sourced venison on the menu at the moment, one of the more sustainable and healthier meats which we’re serving with some fresh, seasonal vegetables.

Crapaudine is the oldest variety of beet still in existence – its origins can be traced to around the year 1000.

Chef Jermaine likes to let the gorgeous flavours shine through, so we simply serve it roasted and seasoned with thyme and rosemary, while we infuse the juice with liquorice, which really complements the pickled fennel. We then finish the dish with a venison sauce and a bit of dill oil.

What we’ve been drinking: 2021 Lethbridge Shiraz, Geelong, Victoria, Australia

A perfect accompaniment to our venison dish above is this 2021 Lethbridge Shiraz from Geelong in Victoria, Australia. Set up by a pair of former research scientists, Lethbridge Wines is a boutique producer specialising in highly terroir-driven wines.

Limestone in the soil in Geelong provides the alkaline conditions grape vines need to grow and helps produce aromatic wines. Lethbridge’s vineyard is farmed biodynamically, and the winery design is minimal impact, requiring no heating or cooling.
 
This aromatic Shiraz combines vivid scents of blackberry, pepper, elderberry and violets with a firm, muscular structure. An appetising dryness offsets the rich, ripe fruit.